Category Archives: Consumer affairs

Metric vs Imperial. Which?

Posted on 2018-04-04 by Ramsden

We comment on a letter and the reply recently published in Which?, the magazine of the Consumers Association. Likes(16)Dislikes(4)

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, History, Technical | Tagged CRT, inches, metric, screen size, smartphone, TV | 1 Comment

A storm in a champagne glass

Posted on 2018-03-09 by Ramsden

We look into the recent story that appeared on BBC TV about the possibility of champagne becoming available again in the UK in pint bottles. Likes(28)Dislikes(22)

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Law | Tagged bottle, champagne, half bottle, magnum, pint | 6 Comments

Then and now

Posted on 2018-02-02 by Ramsden

We take a look at a film from 1973 made with the aim introducing the metric system to the general public. Likes(23)Dislikes(46)

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, History | Tagged "Simply Metric", metric, metrication, muddle, UK, UK Metrication Board | 7 Comments

Diaries, and a glimpse into the past

Posted on 2018-01-20 by ronniec

Many of us have probably bought a diary for 2018 recently. Ronnie Cohen takes a look at the conversion tables found at the front of many sold in the UK. Likes(20)Dislikes(44)

Posted in Consumer affairs, History, Technical | Tagged conversion, conversions, diary, factor, factors, imperial, metric, obsolete, unit, units | Leave a comment

Alpine DIY and the generation gap

Posted on 2018-01-12 by Ramsden

Happy New Year to all our readers. In this article, the Editor explains the reason for the absence of new posts on MV in recent weeks. This leads to a discussion of a issue that few of us, perhaps, have … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, History, Views from abroad | Tagged cm, DIY, France, French, measurement units, metric, Metric Sense, metrication, mm | 7 Comments

A case of dumbing down on measures for US audience

Posted on 2017-09-30 by ronniec

Amid the reports last year about the failure of consumer tests for the Galaxy S7 Active phone, one notable difference between the official use of the International Protection (a.k.a Ingress Protection) marks and the consumer reviews on an American website … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, Technical | Tagged American, dust, equipment, Galaxy, ingress, IP, marking, mobile, phone, protection, rating, US, water | 4 Comments

New Internationalist, a metric role model for the British media

Posted on 2017-09-04 by ronniec

Back after our summer break, Metric Views is happy to publicize a periodical that might have escaped our readers’ attention in recent years. Ronnie Cohen explains. Likes(13)Dislikes(9)

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Media | Tagged British, magazine, measurement units, media, metric, New Internationalist, newspapers, publication | 15 Comments

Do we sacrifice consistency and clarity for the sake of convention?

Posted on 2017-07-20 by ronniec

We are familiar with size numbers for shoes, hats, dresses and so on. Ronnie Cohen looks at the convention for screen sizes based on inches and asks if this really makes sense. Likes(12)Dislikes(18)

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Media | Tagged Apple, article, centimetres, inches, laptop, Microsoft, screen, size, size number | 11 Comments

Does metric-only labelling require changes to package sizes?

Posted on 2017-07-16 by ronniec

An argument made against metric-only labelling in the US is that manufacturers would need to change packaging to rational metric sizes. Ronnie Cohen looks at the UK’s experience over the past 50 years. Likes(11)Dislikes(0)

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Myths | Tagged conversion, hard, labelling, labels, metric, metric-only, metrication, myths, package, products, rational, sizes, soft, supplementary indications, US | 6 Comments

Straight bananas and the metric system – the EU legacy?

Posted on 2017-07-06 by ronniec

With Brexit still dominating the news, Ronnie Cohen looks at one of the biggest obstacles to completing our transition to the metric system: its perceived link to the European Union. Likes(11)Dislikes(1)

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, History, Law, Media, Myths | Tagged 1862, 1895, 1965, 1992, anti-EU, anti-metric, Britain, common market, decimalisation, EEC, EU, European Coal and Steel Community, European Union, europhobe, eurosceptic, euroscepticism, imperial, metric system, metrication, Metrication Programme, Select Committee, Single Market, standardisation, standards, transition, UK, weights and measures | 15 Comments